I'm not even sure what you're arguing here. Are you saying we shouldn't criticize a manager for decisions that we think are incorrect, just because there are possibly variables that we aren't aware of? In the case of Baker, he's been making bad decisions for at least 4 years, and probably longer if you ask SF fans. The fact that bad decisions sometimes end in good results doesn't mean they aren't still bad decisions. Have these mysterious variables existed for Baker's entire tenure? Even if they have, we can only form opinions based on what we know. If this mysterious information comes to light that shows that Baker was somehow correct in these decisions, I'm sure there will be a large portion of those doing the criticizing that will admit their mistake. I don't think that will be necessary though. How are we to "dig deeper"? We have a beat writer and a broadcaster (among others) posting here. We all regular read the newspaper, all the quotes from all the relevant parties, and keep ourselves tuned into all the baseball sources that we can. What exactly is it that you propose that we do? Since you think that "fans not digging deeper" is somehow a fault, please...give us an option to correct this.